Save Article

Kyrgyz Leaders Say U.S. Enriched Regime

By

Alan Cullison

Kadyr Toktogulov and

Yochi J. Dreazen

Updated April 11, 2010 2:31 a.m. ET

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan—The new self-installed government here plans to investigate the U.S. military's fuel purchases at its Manas air base, focusing on the ousted president's son and "why the U.S. allowed so much money to go to his personal gain," a top official said Friday.

The accusation about the son of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev could provide fresh complications for the U.S. attempts to maintain the air base outside the Kyrgyz capital, which it has used as a pivotal hub for ferrying troops and supplies into Afghanistan. Word of the new Kyrgyz leadership's anger over U.S. dealings with the Bakiyev regime on the air base came as a senior U.S. military official said that all troop flights were being diverted from Manas to Kuwait for at least the next two days because of security concerns at the facility.

The streets of Kyrgyz capital Bishkek were calm early on Friday, but signs of night-time looting remained. This just one day after the country's new leadership dissolved parliament following clashes between protesters and police. COurtesy Reuters.

Related Video

The deposed president said in an interview Friday with The Wall Street Journal that his son may have profited from fuel sales at the base, which have in the past been a contentious issue in Kyrgyz politics. But Mr. Bakiyev, speaking by telephone from a southern province away from the capital, said he saw nothing wrong with that because his son "has been in business for a long time."

The Kyrgyz government "had a business-like partnership with the U.S. in many areas, especially on the Manas base," Mr. Bakiyev said. "I think it was necessary for the stability in the region, especially in Afghanistan."

Kyrgyz pray on Friday as they gather in Bishkek's main square to mourn victims of this week's violence; government officials raised the death count to 77 from the uprising that ousted the country's president.
Associated Press

A senior official for the Defense Department agency that oversees such deals, Kathryn Fantasia, said Pentagon contracting laws allow companies connected to foreign leaders and their families to bid and win contracts. "If the interim administration has questions about operations at Manas, we are willing to discuss any aspect with them," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

Opposition politicians have accused the U.S. of ignoring Mr. Bakiyev's slide into authoritarianism in order to curry favor with his government so that Bishkek will continue to host the U.S. military base. Mr. Bakiyev's refusal to resign, which he reiterated Friday, has put the U.S. in an awkward position. The State Department has avoided formally recognizing the new government, although an embassy official has met the new leader, Rosa Otunbayeva.

Russia, meanwhile has greeted the new government on a higher level, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has already spoken to her on the phone, and has held out the prospect of financial aid.

Scenes from Bishkek

Kanap Amitahupov, who says he was shot in the chest by a sniper during Wednesday's protest, gets treated at the National Surgical Clinic in Bishkek Friday. Mikhail Galustov/Redux for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Bakiyev's son, Maksim, 32, has been a highly controversial figure inside Kyrgyzstan, whose rise to wealth and prominence as his father tried to make him heir apparent help to spark the upheaval this week. The younger Bakiyev is now in the U.S., his father said, where the U.S. Commerce Department had been scheduled to host him at an economic forum in Washington. Attempts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful.

The new Kyrgyz government plans to untangle the business interests of the younger Bakiyev, which evolved from a humble interest in cash-and-carry alcoholic beverages to a financial empire stretching into oil trading, banking and telecommunications, according to Edil Baisalov, chief of staff for the leader of the new government in Bishkek who returned Friday from political exile in Sweden.

Mr. Baisalov said he believes the U.S. used its fuel sales at the military base as one of the levers to coax Mr. Bakiyev to support its presence in Kyrgyzstan. Mr. Bakiyev, who rose to power in pro-democracy protests in 2005 and whose popularity sank as he became more authoritarian, tried to elicit financial assistance from both Russia and the U.S. by playing on their rivalries in the region.

Pentagon fuel contracts at Manas have long been controversial within Kyrgyzstan, where they are widely seen as a back-door way of enriching the families of the country's rulers. The son Mr. Bakiyev's predecessor as president, Askar Akayev, was a part owner of one of a company providing fuel services there, Manas International Services Ltd., while the ousted leader's son-in-law, Adil Toiganbayev, was linked to the second company, Aalam Services Ltd. Both companies held those deals in 2002 and 2003.

The Pentagon currently employs a little-known, Gibraltar-registered company called Mina Corp. to provide fuel at Manas. It until recently shared hotel space in Bishkek with another Gibraltar-based company, Red Star Enterprises Ltd.

Kyrgyz opposition figures believe both are linked to members of the Bakiyev family, though they provided no documentation on Friday. Ms. Fantasia said Mina's three-year contract is valued at up to $762 million.

Regional Map

Mr. Baisalov, the new leadership's chief of staff, said he believes Maksim Bakiyev has benefitted by "absolutely the same" mechanism as the Akayev family did. Ms. Otunbayeva, the newly installed government leader, also said Thursday she would like an investigation into the import and sale of fuels to the airbase, but she did not give details.

Mr. Baisalov called the fuel sales part of a wider U.S. policy of coddling Mr. Bakiyev in return for his support of the U.S. military presence in this mountainous former Soviet republic. He complained that the U.S. ignored Mr. Bakiyev's rising authoritarianism as he cracked down on opposition and appointed family and friends to top government posts. Over the past year a number of opposition figures have disappeared, been arrested or fled the country to avoid prosecution.

"If not for the events of April 7 and the popular uprising, we believe that the U.S. would have swallowed a complete destruction of democracy and the opposition leaders," he said.

Mr. Bakiyev, who fled the opposition uprising in the capital Wednesday to be among his traditional political allies in southern Kyrgyzstan, denied responsibility in the telephone interview for fatalities in the clashes with government troops. He said the blame lies with the caretaker government "that bought armed people to the protests."

Those protests, which began in a provincial city in northern Kyrgyzstan, gathered strength after the government arrested key opposition figures who are now running the government. The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said the death toll Friday rose to 77 as one more critically wounded person died.

More on Kyrgyzstan

Capital: Bishkek

Population: 5.4 million

Gross Domestic Product in 2008: $4 billion

Main Exports: Cotton, tobacco, gold, mercury, uranium and natural gas

History: Achieved independence with collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. Both Russia and the U.S. have been courting Kyrgyzstan as an ally in a struggle for influence in the region. Since he came to power in 2005, President Bakiyev has turned Kyrgyzstan into an authoritarian state with a system of political controls starkly similar to Russia's.

Relations with U.S.: Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, U.S. set up military base in Kyrgyzstan to support war in Afghanistan. But in February 2009, at the same press conference that announced the gift of $2.1 billion in Russian aid to the Kyrgyz, President Bakiyev also announced the closure of the U.S. air base. He later backtracked, offering U.S . continued use of the base, but at three times original rent.

Sources: World Bank, CIA World Factbook, WSJ research

More than 500 were hospitalized, about half of them with gunshot wounds. Elena Bayalinova, a spokeswoman for the ministry said that most of them were shot either in their heads or chests, suggesting that snipers picked off some of them.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in the downtown square of Bishkek Friday in a day of mourning.

Mr. Bakiyev said that the crowd that arrived at the White house Wednesday was armed and shot at his windows. He said presidential guard "responded to firing by the protesters" and acted legally. Mr. Bakiyev confirmed that snipers were deployed on top of the White House.